The subject matter herein relates generally to solid state lighting systems, and more particularly, to configurable solid state lighting systems.
Solid-state light lighting systems use solid state light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), and are being used to replace other lighting systems that use other types of light sources, such as incandescent or fluorescent lamps. The solid-state light sources offer advantages over the lamps, such as rapid turn-on, rapid cycling (on-off-on) times, long useful life span, low power consumption, narrow emitted light bandwidths that eliminate the need for color filters to provide desired colors, and so on.
Solid-state lighting systems typically include different components that are assembled together to complete the final system. For example, the system typically consists of a driver, a controller, a light source, and a power supply. It is not uncommon for a customer assembling a lighting system to have to go to many different suppliers for each of the individual components, and then assemble the different components, from different manufacturers together. Purchasing the various components from different sources proves to make integration into a functioning system difficult. This non-integrated approach does not allow the ability to effectively package the final lighting system in a lighting fixture efficiently.
Another problem with known solid state lighting systems is that the components are typically customized for a particular end use application. For example, to achieve certain functionality, the driver will either be custom manufactured for one particular functionality, such as wireless control, dimming capability, programmable set points, and the like. As such, different drivers must be purchased and/or stored by the customer, and the appropriate driver must be selected depending on the desired end use. Furthermore, if the needs or functionality of the lighting system were to change, then the entire driver would need to be removed and replaced. Alternatively, the driver may be over designed such that the driver has multiple functionality, which may or may not be required for the particular end use application. In such situation, the over design of the driver adds to the overall cost of the driver, and the customer may not have need for certain functionality leading the customer to overpay for functionality of the driver that is not needed or wanted.
A need remains for a lighting system that may be efficiently packaged into a lighting fixture. A need remains for a lighting system that may be efficiently configured for an end use application.